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I MUST STAND WITH ANYBODY 
THAT STANDS RIGHT; STAND 
WITH HIM W^HILE HE IS RIGHT, 
AND PART WITH HIM WHEN HE 
GOES WRONG "- o4braham Lincoln 



MR. & MRS. RALPH EMERSON'S 
PERSONAL RECOLLECTIONS 
gf cylBRAHAM LINCOLN 



ROCKFORD, ILLINOIS 

MCMIX 



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(lAti Intimate View if <^be Lincoln 

By Ralph Emerson 

ABOUT sixty years ago I was, for a time, inti- 
mate with Abraham Lincoln. People are apt 
to think of him largely as a joking, story- 
telling man. When he was alone with friends who did 
not expect a story or a joke, he was a very quiet, earn- 
est, almost sad-faced man. I remember one afternoon 
when we were strolling together after court, through 
the delightful "Money Creek Timber," I sought his 
advice with regard to my own future life. It was 
given so quietly and earnestly that I soon after em- 
braced the first opportunity to enter a business life. 

So impressed was I with his ability that when, 
four years later, we became involved in a very import- 
ant litigation, we retained him to help. I paid him 
the largest retaining fee, he said, he had ever, up to 
that time, received. So important was the litigation 
that a host of lawyers were engaged on each side, in- 
cluding such men as Senator Douglas, Gov. Wm. H. 
Seward, and quite a number of other lawyer mem- 
bers of Congress. 

When the case came on for hearing in Cincinnati, 
as Lincoln had not had sufl^cient time to prepare, he 
did not speak, but he was present through the whole 
hearing, which consumed several days. We were 
limited to two lawyers on a side. Edwin M. Stanton, 
later the celebrated ' ' War Secretary, ' ' was one of 
those who spoke for us, deli vering a speech which he had 
spent a very long time in studying up and preparing. 
So intensely interested was Lincoln in this speech, 
that, forgetting the dignity of a United States Court, 

Page 5 




Lincoln as I first knew him. 



he stood rapt in attention, or else was even walking- 
back and forth in the court room listening intently. 
It was the first time Lincoln and Stanton met, and 
from what Lincoln said to me when he was President 
I am satisfied that it was that speech which made 
Lincoln choose Stanton as his final Secretary of War. 

Let me illustrate. There was talk, at one time, 
of a compromise with the other side. Stanton was a 
man, when excited, of a lion-like countenance. The 
moment he heard the subject of compromise broached 
in our ofl!ice he was ablaze at once; and with gestures 
as though he held a sword in his hand, he exclaimed: 
Compromise ! I know of but one way to compromise 
with an enemy, and that is with a sword in your hand, 
and to smite, and keep smiting !" And his counten- 
ance was a blaze of wrath as he spoke. What won- 
der that Lincoln, when disappointed in other men, 
sent for Stanton as his final Secretary of War ! 

When the hearing was through, Mr. Lincoln 
called me to him as we left the court room and wanted 
to walk and talk. 

For block after block he walked rapidly forward, 
silent and deeply dejected. 

At last, turning to me, he exclaimed : ' ' Emerson, 
I'm going home." A pause. "I am going home to 
study law. ' ' 

"Why," I exclaimed, "Mr. Lincoln you stand at 
the head of the bar in Illinois now. What are you 
talking about ?" 

"Yes, yes," he said. " I do occupy a good posi- 
tion there, and I think I can get along with the way 
things are going there now. But these college trained 
men who have devoted their whole lives to study are 
coming west don't you see ? They study on a single 
case perhaps for months, as we never do. 

Page 7 




Lincoln as he appeared when telling a story to 
illustrate a point he wished to make 



"We are apt to catch up the thing as it goes be- 
fore a jury and trust to the inspiration of the moment. 
They have got as far as Ohio now. They will soon be 
in Ilhnois. " 

Another long pause. Then stopping and turning 
towards me, his countenance suddenly assumed that 
look of strong determination which we who knew him 
best sometimes saw on his face, and he exclaimed : 

" I'm going home to study law ! I'm as good as 
any of them, and when they get out to Illinois I will 
be ready for them." 

He finished, and at once became very cheerful, 
as though he now saw a clear path before him. 

We walked on down by the banks of the Ohio 
river. He suddenly turned and pointed across the 
river to Kentucky, and said : ' ' Here is this fine city 
of Cincinnati, and over there is the little town of Cov- 
ington. Covington has just as good a location as Cin- 
cinnati, and a fine country back of it. It was settled 
before Cincinnati. Why is it not a bigger city ? Just 
because of slavery, and nothing else. My people used 
to live over there, and I know. Why the other day 
I went to ship my family on a little railroad they have 
got down there from Covington back into the coun- 
try. I went to the ticket office and found a lank fel- 
low sprawling over the counter, who had to count up 
quite a while on his fingers how much two and one- 
half fares would come to. While over here in Cincin- 
nati, when I shove my money through the window, 
the three tickets and the change would come flying 
back at me quick. And it is just the same way in 
all things through Kentucky. That is what slavery 
does for the white man." 

We walked on down the river and the conversa- 
tion turned on a trip to Palestine and Jerusalem. His 
countenance at once lit up, and he exclaimed, ''Yes! 

Page 9 




As Lincoln appeared as I last saw him in the 

DARKEST DAYS OF THE WAR 



To tread the ground the Saviour trod !" Never from 
other human hps have I heard the word ' ' Saviour ' ' 
pronounced with such depth of earnestness. Appar- 
ently absorbed with the two thoughts of the evils of 
slavery, and of the ' * Saviour, ' ' we wandered on in 
silence, and so parted. 

Time went on— he was President— and the war 
came with defeat after defeat to the Union armies. 
Such men as Horace Greeley were loudly calling for 
peace at any terms with our ' ' erring sisters, who 
should be allowed to depart in peace." Everything 
looked dark. Being in Washington with my brother. 
Prof. Emerson of Beloit College, Judge Davis of the 
Supreme Court (one of Lincoln's best friends), sug- 
gested that we go and cheer "Old Abe" up a bit. As 
we went. Judge Davis said : * ' You must expect him 
to tell some kind of a story. If he could not relieve 
his mind in the darkest hours in this way, he would 
die." 

We found Lincoln sitting very sad and pensive, 
for news had just come in of one of the worst defeats 
of the war. We told him that we had come to tell 
him that no matter how dark the clouds, and what 
might be said in the east, the great west was with him, 
and had absolute confidence in him and in God, and that 
we would pull through. He looked up with a sad 
smile and then said : ' ' Yes, but I am sometimes re- 
minded of Old Mother Partington. You know the old 
lady lived on the sea beach, and one time a big storm 
came up and the waves began to rise till the water 
began to come in under her cabin door. She got a 
broom and went to sweeping it out. But the water 
rose higher and higher ; to her knees ; to her waist ; 
at last to her chin, but she kept on sweeping and ex- 
claiming, ' I'll keep on sweeping as long as the broom . 
lasts, and we will see whether the storm or the 

Page 11 



broom will last the longest !' And that is the way 
with me." And his jaws came together with that 
firm grip we who knew him best were familiar with. 
Looking earnestly at the fireplace he resumed: ' 'Yes, 
Providence ! As I read history I see we can not tell 
in advance what God's plans about any nation are. 
We can only find out by seeing what the result finally 
is when it is all over. All we have to do is to do the 
best we can with what we have, and trust the result 
to God." And his jaws again assumed that set ex- 
pression, and we knew what was his iron determina- 
tion. He thanked us heartily for coming to tell him 
what the people thought "at home." And so we 
parted. 

This was the last time I saw him alive. When 
he was in his coffin, Mrs, Emerson and I sat for a long 
time gazing at his countenance. The deep lines pro- 
duced by anxious thought were still there. But across 
each line was written very plainly : ' ' The peace of 
God has settled on his quiet spirit." 

It was a marked contrast to the time when I had 
last seen him. The dead countenance appeared to 
say that he had died with the consciousness of having 
done his best and that he was satisfied with the 
result. 



Page 12 



cAbraham Lincoln and Wait Talcott 

WAIT TALCOTT, father of Mrs. Ralph Emer- 
son, was a member of the IlHnois State Senate 
at the time when Lincoln first ran for U. S. 
Senator. The contest was very long and severe, and 
Mr. Talcott was one of the leaders on the Lincoln side. 
But there were a few members of the House who 
refused to vote for Lincoln, and it was impossible 
quite to secure a majority. When the legislature was 
nearly wearied out one day a conference took place 
in the back part of the hall, where the legislature 
met between Lincoln, Logan and others of the Repup- 
lican leaders when it was agreed that Lyman Trumbull 
should be elected Senator in place of Lincoln, which 
was done. But the friendship which had grown very 
strong between Lincoln and Wait Talcott continued 
to the former's death. 

When Lincoln was a candidate for President we 
were all anxious to have him secure all the votes he 
consistently could. 

In a conversation between Mr. Lincoln and Mr. 
Talcott, just before the election, Mr. Lincoln called 
Mr. Talcott to one side and said : 

' ' I know you Talcotts are all strong abolitionists, 
and while I have had to be very careful in what I said 
I want you to understand that your opinions and 
wishes have produced a much stronger impression on 
my mind than you may think." 

In the turmoil of politics, at the time Lincoln was 
elected President, Mr. Talcott had favored some course 
which produced coldness between him and the 

Page 13 



Honorable E. B. Washburn, who was then a leading 
Republican member of the House of Representatives 
and represented this district. 

When the internal revenue law was passed Mr. 
Washburn found out that Mr. Lincoln was intending 
to give Mr. Talcott an appointment under it, and op- 
posed the appointment. Of all of this Mr. Talcott 
knew nothing till one day he received by mail a letter 
signed by Mr. Lincoln, an exact fac-simile of which 
is reproduced on the following page. Note the close 
handwriting of Mr. Lincoln. 

This letter shows the earnest friendship Mr. Lin- 
coln had for both parties, and his earnest desire that 
they should work together with him for the common 
good. 

The Hon. Wait Talcott was one of the organizers 
of the old Free Soil, or as it was called at one time the 
Free-Democratic party. He was also a conductor on 
the underground railroad, traveled over by slaves flee- 
ing from Missouri to Canada. 



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TO ALL TO WBOll THESE PBESENTS SHALL COME, GREETING 

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Page 16 



cAbraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address 

Delivered at the Dedication j^' the National Cemetery^ 
November 19, 1863 

FOUR score and seven years ago our fathers 
brought forth upon this continent a new nation, 
conceived in Kberty, and dedicated to the pro- 
position that all men are created equal. 

Now we are engaged in a great civil war testing 
whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and 
so dedicated, can long endure. 

We are met on a great battlefield of that war. 
We have come to dedicate a portion of that field as 
the final resting place for those who here gave their 
lives that that nation might live. 

It is altogether fitting and proper that we should 
do this. 

But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate— we 
cannot consecrate— we cannot hallow— this ground. 

The brave men, living and dead, who struggled 
here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to 
add or detract. 

The world will little note, nor long remember, 
what we say here ; but it can never forget what they 
did here. 

It is for us, the living, rather to be dedicated 
here to the unfinished Work which they who fought 
here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather 
for us to be here dedicated to the great task remain- 
ing before us— that from these honored dead we take 
increased devotion to that cause for which they gave 
the last full measure of devotion; that we here highly 
resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain ; 
that this nation under God, shall have a new birth of 
freedom, and that government of the people, by the 
people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. 

Page 17 



Chronology" gT Lincoln's Life 



1806— Marriage of Thomas Lincoln and Nancy Hanks, June 12, 

Washington County, Kentucky. 
1809 -Born Feb. 12, Hardin (now La Rue) County, Kentucky. 
1816— Family removed to Perry County, Indiana. 
1818— Death of Abraham's mother, Nancy Hanks Lincoln. 
1819— Second marriage of Thomas Lincoln; married Sally Bush 

Johnson, Dec. 2, at Elizabethtown, Kentucky. 
1830— Lincoln family removed to Illinois, locating in Macon 

County. 
1831— Abraham located at New Salem. 
1832— Abraham a Captain in the Black Hawk War. 
1833— Appointed postmaster at New Salem. 
1834— Abraham a Surveyor. First election to the Legislature. 
1835— Love romance with Anne Rutledge. 
1836— Second election to the Legislature. 
1837— Licensed to practice law. 
1838— Third election to the Legislature. 
1840— Presidential Elector on Harrison ticket. Fourth election 

to the Legislature. 
1842— Married Nov. 4 to Mary Todd. "Duel" with General 

Shields. 
1843- Birth of Robert Todd Lincoln, Aug. 1. 
1846— Elected to Congress. Birth of Edward Baker Lincoln, 

March 10. 
1848— Delegate to the Philadelphia National Convention. 
1850-Birth of William Wallace Lincoln, Dec. 2. 
1853— Birth of Thomas Lincoln, April 4. 
1856 — Assists in formation of Republican party. 
1858— Joint debate with Stephen A. Douglas. Defeated for the 

United States Senate. 
1860— Nominated and elected to the Presidency. 
1861— Inaugurated as President, March 4. 
1863 — Issued Emancipation Proclamation. 
1864— Re-elected to the Presidency. 
1865— Assassinated by J. Wilkes Booth, April 14. Died April 

15. Remains interred at Springfield, 111., May 4. 



Page 18 



Designed and Executed at the Shop jT 
WILSON BROTHERS COMPANY, PRINTERS 
We Quality Shop Rockford, Illinois 



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